Implementing and optimizing secure socket layer intercept

ABSTRACT

Provided are methods and systems for intercepting encrypted data packets. A system for intercepting encrypted data packets includes a first device and a second device. The first device serves a client-side data traffic associated with a client device and the second device serves a server-side data traffic associated with a server. The first device is configured to intercept at least one encrypted data packet. The first device is further configured to decrypt the encrypted packet to produce at least one decrypted data packet. The first device provides the decrypted data packet to one or more monitoring devices for inspection of the decrypted data packet. The second device is configured to receive, from the one or more monitoring devices, the at least one decrypted data packet. The second device is further operable to re-encrypt the decrypted data packet to produce the at least one encrypted data packet.

This present application is a continuation and claims the benefit ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/622,840, titled “Implementing andOptimizing Secure Socket Layer Intercept,” and filed Feb. 14, 2015, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,063,591, the disclosure of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to computer and network security and,more particularly, to implementing and optimizing secure socket layer(SSL) intercept.

BACKGROUND

The approaches described in this section could be pursued but are notnecessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued.Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that anyof the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merelyby virtue of their inclusion in this section.

An SSL is a cryptographic protocol designed for providing communicationsecurity over the Internet. The SSL uses asymmetric cryptography forauthenticating a counterparty with which the SSL is communicating,symmetric encryption for confidentiality, and message authenticationcodes for message integrity. The SSL is widely used for instantmessaging and Voice over Internet Protocol, and in applications such asbrowsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, and others.

Firewall, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Intrusion DetectionSystem (ID S) security appliances usually can only inspect plain texttraffic or clear text traffic and have difficulties inspecting the SSLtraffic because data packets of the SSL traffic are encrypted. Thus,traditional Packet Capture forensic tools may not be effective wheninspecting SSL traffic. Without the ability to inspect SSL traffic,confidential information may be compromised and content can be infectedwith the help of malware and botnets. Some security appliances haveinternal SSL decryption/encryption support to inspect incoming andoutgoing traffic for security threats. However, such appliances normallyuse one device for both incoming and outgoing data traffic. This takesits toll on the performance of the device as decryption and encryptionof the SSL traffic requires complicated and time- and resource-consumingcomputations. Therefore, inspection of the SSL traffic for malware,extracted data, or hidden threats by such device may be unsatisfactory.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described in the Detailed Descriptionbelow. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

The present disclosure is related to approaches for interceptingencrypted data packets. Specifically, a system for interceptingencrypted data packets may include a first device and a second device.The first device may serve a client-side data traffic associated with aclient device and the second device may serve a server-side data trafficassociated with a server. The first device may be configured tointercept at least one encrypted data packet. The first device may befurther configured to decrypt the at least one encrypted packet toproduce at least one decrypted data packet. The first device may providethe at least one decrypted data packet to one or more monitoring devicesfor inspection of the at least one decrypted data packet. The seconddevice may be configured to receive, from the one or more monitoringdevices, the at least one decrypted data packet. The second device maybe further operable to re-encrypt the at least one decrypted data packetto produce the at least one encrypted data packet.

According to another approach of the present disclosure, there isprovided a method for intercepting encrypted data packets. The methodmay commence with intercepting, by a first device serving a client-sidedata traffic associated with a client device, at least one encrypteddata packet. The method may continue with decrypting, by the firstdevice, the at least one encrypted packet to produce at least onedecrypted data packet. The method may include providing, by the firstdevice, the at least one decrypted data packet to one or more monitoringdevices for inspection of the at least one decrypted data packet. Themethod may further include receiving, by a second device serving aserver-side data traffic associated with a server, the at least onedecrypted data packet from the one or more monitoring devices. The atleast one decrypted data packet may be re-encrypted, by the seconddevice, to produce the at least one encrypted data packet.

In further example embodiments of the present disclosure, the methodoperations are stored on a machine-readable medium comprisinginstructions, which, when implemented by one or more processors, performthe recited operations. In yet further example embodiments, hardwaresystems or devices can be adapted to perform the recited operations.Other features, examples, and embodiments are described below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by limitation, inthe figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows an environment, within which methods and systems forintercepting encrypted data packets can be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing SSL communications between aclient and a server.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing interception of SSL communicationsbetween a client and a server.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing interception of SSL communicationsbetween a client and a server.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for interceptingencrypted data packets.

FIG. 6 is a process flow diagram of a method for intercepting encrypteddata packets.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating SSL interception packet flow.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating SSL interception packet flow.

FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of a computing device for amachine, within which a set of instructions for causing the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein can beexecuted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description includes references to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description.The drawings show illustrations in accordance with example embodiments.These example embodiments, which are also referred to herein as“examples,” are described in enough detail to enable those skilled inthe art to practice the present subject matter. The embodiments can becombined, other embodiments can be utilized, or structural, logical, andelectrical changes can be made without departing from the scope of whatis claimed. The following detailed description is therefore not to betaken in a limiting sense, and the scope is defined by the appendedclaims and their equivalents. In this document, the terms “a” and “an”are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more thanone. In this document, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive“or,” such that “A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “Aand B,” unless otherwise indicated.

The techniques of the embodiments disclosed herein may be implementedusing a variety of technologies. For example, the methods describedherein may be implemented in software executing on a computer system orin hardware utilizing either a combination of microprocessors or otherspecially designed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs),programmable logic devices, or various combinations thereof. Inparticular, the methods described herein may be implemented by a seriesof computer-executable instructions residing on a storage medium, suchas a disk drive or computer-readable medium. It should be noted thatmethods disclosed herein can be implemented by a computer (e.g., adesktop computer, tablet computer, laptop computer), game console,handheld gaming device, cellular phone, smart phone, smart televisionsystem, and so forth.

As outlined in the summary, the embodiments of the present disclosureare directed to intercepting encrypted data packets. A system forintercepting encrypted data packets can be responsible for interceptingand inspecting encrypted data packets communicated between a client anda server. The system may distribute the load caused by the decryptionand encryption of SSL traffic between several devices. According to thepresent disclosure, a client may access a server using the SSL. Theclient-side SSL traffic can be intercepted by a first device. A decisionas to whether to trigger an interception of the SSL traffic can be madebased on either Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number (443) ormore generic SSL traffic detection methods. The first device mayintercept the SSL traffic using wildcard Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP)address. Upon interception of the client-side SSL traffic, the firstdevice may decrypt the client-side SSL traffic to produce clear texttraffic. As used herein, “clear text” is the form of a message or data,which is sent or stored without cryptographic protection in a form thatis understandable without additional processing.

Port translation can be used to allow the first device to notify thesecond device that the SSL traffic was intercepted. More specifically,the first device can perform a TCP port 443 translation, and theencrypted traffic from TCP port 443 can become the clear text traffic toa configurable port having an unused port number, such as port 8080.Thus, the second device can receive an indication that the SSL trafficis intercepted and needs to be re-encrypted. The clear text traffic maybe sent by the first device to a monitoring device for inspection. Themonitoring device can receive the clear text traffic from the firstdevice and inspect the received clear text traffic for security threats.The monitoring device may use conventional procedures for inspection ofthe clear text traffic. Upon inspection, in absence of any securitythreats, the monitoring device may send the inspected clear text trafficto a second device. The second device may receive the clear text trafficfrom the monitoring device and encrypt the clear text traffic to producethe SSL traffic. After encryption, the second device may send the SSLtraffic to the server.

Upon receiving and processing of the SSL traffic, the server may send anencrypted response, i.e., server-side SSL traffic, to the client. Theserver-side SSL traffic can be intercepted by the second device. Thesecond device can also use the wildcard VIP address to intercept theserver-side SSL traffic. Upon interception of the server-side SSLtraffic, the second device may decrypt the server-side SSL traffic toproduce clear text traffic. The clear text traffic may be sent by thesecond device to the monitoring device for inspection. The monitoringdevice can receive the clear text traffic from the second device andinspect the received clear text traffic for security threats. Uponinspection, in absence of any security threats, the monitoring devicemay send the inspected clear text traffic to the first device. The firstdevice may receive the clear text traffic from the monitoring device andencrypt the clear text traffic to produce the SSL traffic. After theencryption, the first device may send the SSL traffic to the client.Therefore, the client-side SSL traffic can be handled by the firstdevice and the server-side SSL traffic can be processed by the seconddevice. Thus, the optimal performance of SSL communication between theclient and the server is provided by distributing thecomputation-sensitive SSL traffic processing between two devices, namelythe first device and the second device.

Furthermore, Firewall, IPS, IDS, and other security vendors can easilyinsert their security devices, namely monitoring devices, in the middleof each client-server and server-client connections. In particular, amonitoring device can be placed between the first device and the seconddevice. Thus, a security device can be used without any modificationsunaware of the SSL to clear text conversions.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates an environment 100within which methods and systems for intercepting encrypted data packetscan be implemented. The environment 100 may include a network 110, aclient 120, a server 130, and a system 500 for intercepting encrypteddata packets. The client 120 may include a network machine or a networkresource that sends client-side SSL traffic 140 to the server 130. Theserver 130, in turn, may send server-side SSL traffic 150 to the client120. The client 120 and the server 130 may communicate with each otherusing the network 110.

The network 110 may include the Internet or any other network capable ofcommunicating data between devices. Suitable networks may include orinterface with any one or more of, for instance, a local intranet, aPersonal Area Network, a Local Area Network, a Wide Area Network, aMetropolitan Area Network, a virtual private network, a storage areanetwork, a frame relay connection, an Advanced Intelligent Networkconnection, a synchronous optical network connection, a digital T1, T3,E1 or E3 line, Digital Data Service connection, Digital Subscriber Lineconnection, an Ethernet connection, an Integrated Services DigitalNetwork line, a dial-up port such as a V.90, V.34 or V.34bis analogmodem connection, a cable modem, an Asynchronous Transfer Modeconnection, or a Fiber Distributed Data Interface or Copper DistributedData Interface connection. Furthermore, communications may also includelinks to any of a variety of wireless networks, including WirelessApplication Protocol, General Packet Radio Service, Global System forMobile Communication, Code Division Multiple Access or Time DivisionMultiple Access, cellular phone networks, Global Positioning System,cellular digital packet data, Research in Motion, Limited duplex pagingnetwork, Bluetooth radio, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequencynetwork. The network 110 can further include or interface with any oneor more of an RS-232 serial connection, an IEEE-1394 (FireWire)connection, a Fiber Channel connection, an IrDA (infrared) port, a SmallComputer Systems Interface connection, a USB (Universal Serial Bus)connection or other wired or wireless, digital or analog interface orconnection, mesh or Digi® networking. The network 110 may include anetwork of data processing nodes that are interconnected for the purposeof data communication.

The system 500 may intercept both the client-side SSL traffic 140 andthe server-side SSL traffic 150, perform encryption and decryptionsteps, and inspect the decrypted traffic for security threats asdescribed in further detail below.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram 200 of SSL communications between clientsand servers. Clients 210 and servers 220 may communicate with each otherusing an SSL encrypted connection 230. The outgoing traffic, orrequests, of the clients 210 may be directed by a switch 240 locatedwithin a client network to a firewall 250. Similarly, the incomingtraffic, or responses, of the servers 220, may be directed by a router260 to the firewall 250. The firewall 250 may control the incomingtraffic and the outgoing traffic based on predetermined criteria. Thefirewall 250 may not allow passage of data packets that do not match thepredetermined criteria. The firewall 250 may send the requests of theclients 210 and the responses of the servers 220 to monitoring devices270, 280. The monitoring devices 270, 280 may be responsible for malwaredetection and security forensics investigations related to the datapackets of the incoming traffic and the outgoing traffic. However, whenthe incoming traffic or the outgoing traffic is the SSL traffic, i.e.,is encrypted, neither the firewall 250, nor the monitoring devices 270,280 can inspect the incoming traffic or the outgoing traffic. Therefore,both on a client side and a server side, attackers 290, 295 may takeadvantage of the fact that SSL traffic is not inspected and may sendmalicious data packets.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram 300 of interception of SSL communicationsbetween clients and servers. In order to facilitate detection ofmalicious data packets in the incoming traffic and the outgoing traffic,the SSL encrypted connection between the clients 210 and the servers 220may include a client-side SSL encrypted connection 310, and aserver-side SSL encrypted connection 320. Specifically, the clients 210may send the outgoing traffic to the servers 220 using the client-sideSSL encrypted connection 310. Similarly, the servers 220 may send theincoming traffic to the clients 210 using the server-side SSL encryptedconnection 320. Both the outgoing traffic and the incoming traffic maybe intercepted and decrypted into clear text 330 for further inspectionby the firewall 250 or the monitoring devices 270, 280.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram 400 of interception of SSL communicationbetween clients and servers by a system for intercepting encrypted datapackets. The system for intercepting encrypted data packets may includea first device 410 and a second device 420. In some example embodiments,the monitoring devices 270, 280 may also be included into the system forintercepting encrypted data packets. The clients 210 may send theoutgoing traffic to the servers 220 using the client-side SSL encryptedconnection 310. The outgoing traffic of the clients 210 may be directedby the switch 240 located in a client network to the first device 410.The first device 410 may receive the outgoing traffic of the clients 210and decrypt the outgoing traffic of the clients 210. In an exampleembodiment, the decrypted traffic may be in the form of clear text 330.The first device 410 may send the clear text 330 to the monitoringdevices 270, 280 for inspection for malware or botnets. Upon inspectionof the clear text 330, the monitoring devices 270, 280 may send theclear text 330 to the second device 420. The second device 420 mayreceive the clear text 330 and encrypt the clear text 330 to provide theencrypted outgoing traffic of the clients 210. The second device 420 mayfurther send the encrypted outgoing traffic of the clients 210 to theservers 220.

Similarly, the servers 220 may send the incoming traffic to the clients210 using the server-side SSL encrypted connection 320. The incomingtraffic of the servers 220 may be directed by the router 260 to thesecond device 420. The second device 420 may receive the incomingtraffic from the servers 220 and decrypt the incoming traffic. In anexample embodiment, the decrypted traffic may be in the form of theclear text 330. The second device 420 may send the clear text 330 to themonitoring devices 270, 280 for inspection for malware or botnets. Uponinspection of the clear text 330, the monitoring devices 270, 280 maysend the clear text 330 to the first device 410. The first device 410may receive the clear text 330 and encrypt the clear text 330 to providethe encrypted incoming traffic from the servers 220. The first device420 may further send the encrypted incoming traffic to the clients 210.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram illustrating various modules of an examplesystem 500 for intercepting encrypted data packets. Specifically, thesystem 500 may include a first device 502, a second device 504, and amonitoring device 506. The first device 502 may be operable to interceptat least one encrypted data packet forwarded by at least one clientdevice of an organization to a server. The at least one data packet maybe intercepted by the first device 502 using a wildcard VIP address. Inan example embodiment, in order for the client device to trust the firstdevice 502, an interception proxy authority certificate can be installedon the at least one client device by the organization to enable securecommunications between the at least one client device and the firstdevice 502. In fact, the organization may install the interception proxyauthority certificate on all client devices within an organizationnetwork to ensure trusted communications between the client devices andthe first device. The interception proxy authority certificates may beinstalled in local root stores associated with the client devices.

In an example embodiment, the at least one encrypted data packet isencrypted according to an SSL protocol. The first device 502 may befurther operable to decrypt the at least one encrypted packet. As aresult of decryption, at least one decrypted data packet may beproduced. In an example embodiment, the at least one decrypted datapacket includes a clear text. The first device 502 may be operable toprovide the at least one decrypted data packet to the monitoring device506.

The monitoring device 506 may include at least one of the following: afirewall, an IPS, an IDS, and so forth. The monitoring device 506 may beoperable to inspect the at least one decrypted data packet received fromthe first device 502. The inspection of the at least one decrypted datapacket can be performed based on predetermined criteria. In an exampleembodiment, the predetermined criteria include inspections for malwareor botnets. The monitoring device 506 may be operable to provide theinspected decrypted data packet to the second device 504.

The second device 504 may be operable to receive the at least onedecrypted data packet from the monitoring device 506. The second device504 may be further operable to re-encrypt the at least one decrypteddata packet. As a result of re-encryption, the at least one encrypteddata packet may be produced. The second device 504 may send the at leastone encrypted data packet to the server. In an example embodiment, thesecond device 504 is further operable to replace a secure certificateassociated with the server to enable secure communications between thesecond device 504 and the server.

In a further example embodiment, an organization may want, for example,for budget reasons, to perform SSL traffic inspection using one deviceinstead of two devices. In this case, the first device and the seconddevice may run on different partitions of a third device.

Thus, by using the first device 502 for decryption and the second device504 for encryption, in view of time- and resource-consuming computationsrequired for decryption and encryption, the system 500 may queue theperformance of the SSL communication between the client and the server.Furthermore, the first device 502 and the second device 504 can provideinspection of SSL traffic from both sides: from the client to the serverand from the server to the client.

Additionally, in the case when the monitoring device 506 is athird-party monitoring device, the third-party monitoring device can bereadily interconnected between the first device 502 and the seconddevice 504. That means that security devices of firewall, IPS, IDS, orother security vendors can be deployed in the middle between the firstdevice 502 and the second device 504. The clear text traffic can beprovided to the monitoring device 506, as well as from the monitoringdevice 506. Therefore, no decryption or encryption is performed by themonitoring device 506.

FIG. 6 shows a process flow diagram of a method 600 for interceptingencrypted data packets, according to an example embodiment. In someembodiments, the operations may be combined, performed in parallel, orperformed in a different order. The method 600 may also includeadditional or fewer operations than those illustrated. The method 600may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g.,decision making logic, dedicated logic, programmable logic, andmicrocode), software (such as software run on a general-purpose computersystem or a dedicated machine), or a combination of both.

The method 600 may commence with intercepting, by a first device, atleast one encrypted data packet at operation 602. The at least one datapacket may be intercepted using a wildcard VIP address. In an exampleembodiment, the at least one encrypted data packet is received from atleast one client device of an organization. In a further exampleembodiment, an interception proxy authority certificate is installed onthe at least one client device by the organization to enable securecommunications between the at least one client device and the firstdevice. The at least one encrypted data packet may be encryptedaccording to an SSL protocol. Upon interception of the at least oneencrypted data packet, the at least one encrypted packet may bedecrypted by the first device at operation 604. As a result ofdecryption, at least one decrypted data packet may be produced. In anexample embodiment, the at least one decrypted data packet includesclear text.

The at least one decrypted data packet may be provided to a monitoringdevice at operation 606. In an example embodiment, the monitoring deviceincludes at least one of the following: a firewall, an IPS, an IDS, andso forth. The monitoring device may inspect the at least one decrypteddata packet based on predetermined criteria. In an example embodiment,the predetermined criteria include inspections for malware or botnets.

At operation 608, a second device may receive the at least one decrypteddata packet from the monitoring device. Upon receiving of the decrypteddata packet, the second device may re-encrypt the at least one decrypteddata packet at operation 610. As a result of re-encryption, the at leastone encrypted data packet may be produced. The second device may forwardthe encrypted data packet to the server.

The method 600 may optionally comprise replacing, by the second device,a secure certificate associated with the server to enable securecommunication between the second device and the server. In a furtherexample embodiment, the first device and the second device run ondifferent partitions of a third device.

In a further example embodiment, the method 600 may include determiningthe necessity of interception an encrypted data packet or providing theencrypted data packet directly to the server. The determining may bebased on a Server Name Indication (SNI). The SNI is known to be anextension to the SSL protocol, by which a client indicates which hostname the client is attempting to connect to at the start of thehandshaking procedure. The first device may check the database for theSNI associated with the client. The SNI may be present in a “ClientHello” message sent by the client. Based on the checking, in case theSNI is marked as trusted in the database, the first device may bypassthe encrypted data packet to the server without interception. If the SNIis absent from the database, the first device may intercept theencrypted data packet.

In a further example embodiment, in case the server requests for thecertification of the client, the encrypted data packet from the servermay be sent without interception. Furthermore, in some embodiments, theclient certificate authentication may be parsed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 illustrating SSL interception packet flow,according to an example embodiment. Typically, an SSL session betweenthe client and the server commences with a handshake procedure thatincludes a process of negotiation that dynamically sets parameters of acommunications channel established between the client and the server.The establishment of the SSL session with interception of the packetflow is described in further detail below.

According to an example embodiment, a client 210 sends a “SYNchronize”message 705 to a first device 410. The first device 410 receives the“SYNchronize” message 705 from the client 210 and sends a“SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement” message 710 to the client 210. The client210 receives the “SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement” message 710 from thefirst device 410 and sends an “ACKnowledgement” message 715 to the firstdevice 410. The client 210 further sends a “Client Hello” message 720 tothe first device 410.

Upon receiving the “Client Hello” message 720 from the client 210, thefirst device 410 checks whether a certificate associated with the server220 is present in a database. The database can save the certificatesbased on the Internet Protocol address, port number, and SNI of theserver 220. Upon determining that the certificate is missing in thedatabase, the first device 410 sends a “SYNchronize” message 725 to aserver 220. The second device 420 receives the “SYNchronize” message 725from the first device 410 and sends a “SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement”message 730 to the first device 410. The first device 410 receives the“SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement” message 730 from the second device 420 andsends an “ACKnowledgement” message 735 to the server 220. The firstdevice 410 can further send a “Client Hello” message 740 to the server220. In response to receiving the “Client Hello” message 740, the server220 sends a “Server Hello” message 745 to the first device 410. Theserver 220 can further send a “Server Certificate” message 750 thatincludes a certificate of the server 220. Furthermore, the server 220sends other messages 755 stipulated by a handshake procedure to thefirst device 410. Upon receiving all handshake messages 755 from theserver 220, the first device 410 sends a “Server Hello” message 760 tothe client 210.

Furthermore, in an example embodiment, before sending the “Server Hello”message 760 to the client 210, the first device 410 may “fake”, i.e.,replace, the certificate associated with the server 220 and received inthe “Server Certificate” message 750 with another certificate. Thecertificate associated with the server 220 may be inserted into thecache by the first device 410. In other words, the certificate that theclient 210 gets from the first device 410 is different from thecertificate provided by the server 220 to the first device 410. In anexample embodiment, the certificate replacement procedure is performedwithin a network of the organization. By using the certificatereplacement procedure, the organization may be able to monitor whichtype of traffic is initiated from clients inside the network of theorganization to servers outside the network of the organization.

In an example embodiment, the replacement of the certificate of theserver is performed as follows. An issuer name of the certificate may bereplaced with SSL intercept Certification Authority (CA) name. Thepublic key can be replaced with SSL intercept CA public key. Most of thecertificate extensions are removed. Subject alternative name is the onlyextension kept. Further, the certificate can be signed with SSLintercept CA private key.

FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating SSL interception packet flow,according to an example embodiment. A client 210 sends a “SYNchronize”message 805 to a first device 410. The first device 410 receives the“SYNchronize” message 805 from the client 210 and sends a“SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement” message 810 to the client 210. The client210 receives the “SYNchronize-ACKnowledgement” message 810 from thefirst device 410 and sends an “ACKnowledgement” message 815 to the firstdevice 410. The client 210 further sends a “Client Hello” message 820 tothe first device 410.

Upon receiving the “Client Hello” message 820 from the client 210, thefirst device 410 checks whether a certificate associated with the server220 is present in a database. The database can save the certificatesbased on the Internet Protocol address, port number, and SNI of theserver 220. Upon determining that the certificate is present in thedatabase, the first device 410 sends a “Server Hello” message 825 to theclient 210 according to the handshake procedure. Furthermore, the firstdevice 410 may “fake”, i.e., replace, the certificate associated withthe server 220 with another certificate and insert another certificateinto a “Server Certificate” message 830. In other words, the firstdevice 210 does not use the certificate of the server 220 present in thedatabase, but inserts another certificate into the “Server Certificate”message 830. The first device 410 can send the “Server Certificate”message 830 to the client 210. In other words, the certificate that theclient 210 gets in the “Server Certificate” message 830 from the firstdevice 410 is different from the certificate associated with the server220 and stored in the database.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computer system 900 that may be used toimplement embodiments of the present disclosure. The computer system 900may serve as a computing device for a machine, within which a set ofinstructions for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein can be executed. The computer system 900can be implemented in the contexts of the likes of computing systems,networks, servers, or combinations thereof. The computer system 900includes one or more processor units 910 and main memory 920. Mainmemory 920 stores, in part, instructions and data for execution byprocessor 910. Main memory 920 stores the executable code when inoperation. The computer system 900 further includes a mass data storage930, portable storage medium drive(s) 940, output devices 950, userinput devices 960, a graphics display system 970, and peripheral devices980. The methods may be implemented in software that is cloud-based.

The components shown in FIG. 9 are depicted as being connected via asingle bus 990. The components may be connected through one or more datatransport means. Processor unit 910 and main memory 920 are connectedvia a local microprocessor bus, and mass data storage 930, peripheraldevice(s) 980, portable storage device 940, and graphics display system970 are connected via one or more I/O buses.

Mass data storage 930, which can be implemented with a magnetic diskdrive, solid state drive, or an optical disk drive, is a non-volatilestorage device for storing data and instructions for use by processorunit 910. Mass data storage 930 stores the system software forimplementing embodiments of the present disclosure for purposes ofloading that software into main memory 920.

Portable storage device 940 operates in conjunction with a portablenon-volatile storage medium, such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USBstorage device, to input and output data and code to and from thecomputer system 900. The system software for implementing embodiments ofthe present disclosure is stored on such a portable medium and input tothe computer system 900 via the portable storage device 940.

User input devices 960 provide a portion of a user interface. User inputdevices 960 include one or more microphones, an alphanumeric keypad,such as a keyboard, for inputting alphanumeric and other information, ora pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball, stylus, or cursordirection keys. User input devices 960 can also include a touchscreen.Additionally, the computer system 900 includes output devices 950.Suitable output devices include speakers, printers, network interfaces,and monitors.

Graphics display system 970 includes a liquid crystal display or othersuitable display device. Graphics display system 970 receives textualand graphical information and processes the information for output tothe display device.

Peripheral devices 980 may include any type of computer support deviceto add additional functionality to the computer system.

The components provided in the computer system 900 of FIG. 9 are thosetypically found in computer systems that may be suitable for use withembodiments of the present disclosure and are intended to represent abroad category of such computer components that are well known in theart. Thus, the computer system 900 can be a personal computer, handheldcomputing system, telephone, mobile computing system, workstation,tablet, phablet, mobile phone, server, minicomputer, mainframe computer,or any other computing system. The computer may also include differentbus configurations, networked platforms, multi-processor platforms, andthe like. Various operating systems may be used including UNIX, LINUX,WINDOWS, MAC OS, PALM OS, ANDROID, IOS, QNX, and other suitableoperating systems.

It is noteworthy that any hardware platform suitable for performing theprocessing described herein is suitable for use with the embodimentsprovided herein. Computer-readable storage media refer to any medium ormedia that participate in providing instructions to a central processingunit, a processor, a microcontroller, or the like. Such media may takeforms including, but not limited to, non-volatile and volatile mediasuch as optical or magnetic disks and dynamic memory, respectively.Common forms of computer-readable storage media include a floppy disk, aflexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic storagemedium, a Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) disk, DVD, Blu-raydisc, any other optical storage medium, RAM, Programmable Read-OnlyMemory, Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory, Electronically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory, flash memory, and/or any other memorychip, module, or cartridge.

In some embodiments, the computer system 900 may be implemented as acloud-based computing environment, such as a virtual machine operatingwithin a computing cloud. In other embodiments, the computer system 900may itself include a cloud-based computing environment, where thefunctionalities of the computer system 900 are executed in a distributedfashion. Thus, the computer system 900, when configured as a computingcloud, may include pluralities of computing devices in various forms, aswill be described in greater detail below.

In general, a cloud-based computing environment is a resource thattypically combines the computational power of a large grouping ofprocessors (such as within web servers) and/or that combines the storagecapacity of a large grouping of computer memories or storage devices.Systems that provide cloud-based resources may be utilized exclusivelyby their owners or such systems may be accessible to outside users whodeploy applications within the computing infrastructure to obtain thebenefit of large computational or storage resources.

The cloud may be formed, for example, by a network of web servers thatcomprise a plurality of computing devices, such as the computer system900, with each server (or at least a plurality thereof) providingprocessor and/or storage resources. These servers may manage workloadsprovided by multiple users (e.g., cloud resource customers or otherusers). Typically, each user places workload demands upon the cloud thatvary in real-time, sometimes dramatically. The nature and extent ofthese variations typically depends on the type of business associatedwith the user.

Thus, methods and systems for intercepting encrypted data packets havebeen described. Although embodiments have been described with referenceto specific example embodiments, it will be evident that variousmodifications and changes can be made to these example embodimentswithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the presentapplication. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for intercepting encrypted data packets,the system comprising: a first device serving a client-side data trafficassociated with a client device, the first device being a hardwaredevice configured to: intercept at least one encrypted data packet;decrypt the at least one encrypted packet to produce at least onedecrypted data packet; and provide the at least one decrypted datapacket to one or more monitoring devices for inspection of the at leastone decrypted data packet, wherein the providing of the at least onedecrypted data packet to the one or more monitoring devices includes:providing the at least one decrypted data packet to a firewall, thefirewall filtering incoming data packets and outgoing data packets usingpredetermined criteria, wherein the firewall is configured to filter theat least one decrypted data packet, wherein the firewall includes: afirst monitoring device of the one or more monitoring devices, the firstmonitoring device being configured to inspect the at least one decrypteddata packet to determine whether the at least one decrypted data packetincludes a malware; and a second monitoring device of the one or moremonitoring devices, the second monitoring device being configured toinspect the at least one decrypted data packet to determine whether theat least one decrypted data packet includes a botnet; wherein the atleast one decrypted data packet is forwarded by the firewall to thefirst monitoring device and the second monitoring device; and a seconddevice serving a server-side data traffic associated with a server, thefirst device and the second device being separate hardware devices, thesecond device being a hardware device configured to: receive, from theone or more monitoring devices, the at least one decrypted data packet,wherein the receiving the at least one decrypted data packet by thesecond device from the one or more monitoring devices includes:receiving, by the second device, the at least one decrypted data packetfrom the firewall, the at least one decrypted data packet being receivedby the firewall from one of the first monitoring device and the secondmonitoring device upon the inspection; and re-encrypt the at least onedecrypted data packet to produce the at least one encrypted data packet.2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one encrypted data packetis encrypted according to a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the at least one encrypted data packet isreceived from the client device of an organization.
 4. The system ofclaim 3, wherein an interception proxy authority certificate isinstalled on the client device by the organization to enable securecommunications between the client device and the first device.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the second device is further configured toreplace a secure certificate associated with the server to enable securecommunication between the second device and the server.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more monitoring devices are configured toperform one or more of the following: inspect the at least one decrypteddata packet to determine whether the at least one decrypted data packetincludes a malware and inspect the at least one decrypted data packet todetermine whether the at least one decrypted data packet includes abotnet.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device and thesecond device run on different partitions of a third device.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the at least one decrypted data packetincludes a clear text.
 9. A method for intercepting encrypted datapackets, the method comprising: intercepting, by a first device servinga client-side data traffic associated with a client device, at least oneencrypted data packet; decrypting, by the first device, the at least oneencrypted packet to produce at least one decrypted data packet;providing, by the first device, the at least one decrypted data packetto one or more monitoring devices for inspection of the at least onedecrypted data packet, wherein the providing of the at least onedecrypted data packet to the one or more monitoring devices includes:providing the at least one decrypted data packet to a firewall, thefirewall filtering incoming data packets and outgoing data packets usingpredetermined criteria, wherein the firewall is configured to filter theat least one decrypted data packet, wherein the firewall includes: afirst monitoring device of the one or more monitoring devices, the firstmonitoring device being configured to inspect the at least one decrypteddata packet to determine whether the at least one decrypted data packetincludes a malware; and a second monitoring device of the one or moremonitoring devices, the second monitoring device being configured toinspect the at least one decrypted data packet to determine whether theat least one decrypted data packet includes a botnet; wherein the atleast one decrypted data packet is forwarded by the firewall to thefirst monitoring device and the second monitoring device; receiving, bya second device serving a server-side data traffic associated with aserver, from the one or more monitoring devices, the at least onedecrypted data packet, the first device and the second device beingseparate hardware devices, wherein the receiving the at least onedecrypted data packet by the second device from the one or moremonitoring devices includes: receiving, by the second device, the atleast one decrypted data packet from the firewall, the at least onedecrypted data packet being received by the firewall from one of thefirst monitoring device and the second monitoring device upon theinspection; and re-encrypting, by the second device, the at least onedecrypted data packet to produce the at least one encrypted data packet.10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one encrypted datapacket is encrypted according to an SSL protocol.
 11. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the at least one decrypted data packet comprises anindication that the at least one decrypted data packet requiresre-encryption, wherein the re-encrypting of the at least one decrypteddata packet by the second device is based on the indication.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein an interception proxy authority certificateis installed on the client device to enable secure communicationsbetween the client device and the first device.
 13. The method of claim9, further comprising replacing, by the second device, a securecertificate associated with the server to enable secure communicationbetween the second device and the server.
 14. The method of claim 9,wherein the one or more monitoring devices include at least one of thefollowing: an intrusion prevention system and an intrusion detectionsystem.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the first device and thesecond device run on different partitions of a third device.
 16. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the at least one data packet is interceptedusing a wildcard virtual Internet Protocol address.
 17. A system forintercepting encrypted data packets, the system comprising: a firstdevice serving a client-side data traffic associated with a clientdevice, the first device being a hardware device configured to:intercept at least one encrypted data packet; decrypt the at least oneencrypted packet to produce at least one decrypted data packet; andprovide the at least one decrypted data packet to a firewall, thefirewall filtering incoming data packets and outgoing data packets usingpredetermined criteria, wherein the firewall is configured to filter theat least one decrypted data packet, wherein the firewall includes: afirst monitoring device of the one or more monitoring devices, the firstmonitoring device being configured to inspect the at least one decrypteddata packet to determine whether the at least one decrypted data packetincludes a malware; and a second monitoring device of the one or moremonitoring devices, the second monitoring device being configured toinspect the at least one decrypted data packet to determine whether theat least one decrypted data packet includes a botnet; wherein the atleast one decrypted data packet is forwarded by the firewall to thefirst monitoring device and the second monitoring device for inspectionof the at least one decrypted data packet; and a second device serving aserver-side data traffic associated with a server, the second devicebeing a hardware device configured to: receive the at least onedecrypted data packet from the firewall, the at least one decrypted datapacket being received by the firewall from one of the first monitoringdevice and the second monitoring device upon the inspection; andre-encrypt the at least one decrypted data packet to produce the atleast one encrypted data packet.